Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Yet another thing I thought I knew until I became a mother

I used to like to think that I was an organized, prepared person who was always ready for a crisis. If there is anything that parenting has taught me, it is that I'm not. Take today for example.
It was raining when I got up this morning, so I didn't expect to be able to go to my Tuesday walking group, but by 8:30 the sky was clear, so I packed up the baby and we went. When I got to the trail by the bay, it was freezing. The wind was blowing and clouds were starting to come up. All of the other moms had nifty rain covers for their strollers, gloves, blankets, and hats for their babies. I had a very cold baby in an open stroller. I grabbed a picnic blanket from the car to wrap around Jared and proceeded to walk. Our normal walk takes two laps around a lagoon. I was distracted talking to the other moms, so I didn't notice the clouds building overhead until we were at the farthest point from our cars and rain started falling in buckets. We started to sprint, but by the time we reached shelter, we may as well have taken a shortcut through the lagoon. I had pulled the big blanket over sleeping Jared's head and he still got a little damp.
When we got home, I went to change Jared's diaper and found that we had only two diapers left in the whole house! That is two diapers away from a serious crisis. Hello motherhood, goodbye organization.
Todd had to report for jury duty in the middle of the day, so we dropped him off and went to the store. As we left the store, armed with our salvation in the form of a jumbo pack of size three diapers, I could see that it was starting to rain again. I didn't know how long the rain would last, so we ran for the car. When we got to the car it was pouring. By the time I got bags, baby, and me into the car, I was soaked. By the time we pulled out of the parking lot, the sky was blue again. Really, California?
The only thing that went right today was some well timed constipation that delayed a true diaper crisis.
As a parting question, how does a baby who can't crawl get himself into this position?

I swear I left the room for less than thirty seconds and came back to find him completely wedged in his closet. He was sitting on the other side of the room happily gnawing on a toy car when I left.